I received this book from The Next Best Book Club in exchange for an honest review.
“I draw a heart with my finger in the circle of my breath as I watch him carry his suitcase across the busy city street, growing smaller with each step he takes away from us. The bell of a cable car rings out as it passes by. And then he is gone, never having turned, never seeing me still waving long after he disappears. My heart melts and slides down the glass,” (Martin 8).
Jayne Martin’s memoir details her growing up with an absent father and how she has been drawn to emotionally unavailable, distant men in her search for love and connection as a result of his absence. For such a short memoir, Martin sure knows how to pack a punch! Offering snapshots into moments from her past, Martin gives readers a brief but intimate look at the what has shaped her. We see her yearning for connection from various father figures in her life, her relationship with her mother and with other partners, and her struggle with connection from potential partners when the relationships Martin craves is so connected with her father’s absence and the loss of that relationship. Martin does an excellent job letting reader’s into her emotions, each word selected with care to let reader’s in to her inner self.
The Daddy Chronicles is a quick but moving read. Martin connects and offers up vulnerable parts of herself to her reader’s in her memoir. A wonderful book, I’d love to read more of Martin’s works!
Publication: March 15 2022
Publisher: Whisk(e)y Tit Press
Pages: 87 pages (PDF)
Source: The Next Best Book Club (Thanks Lori!)
Genre: Non Fiction, Memoir
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤
Summary:
One out of three women in the U.S. identify as fatherless. An absent father who occasionally appears to bestow his affections only to disappear again leads a daughter to seek out others like him – men who are charismatic, but emotionally unavailable – throughout her lifetime.
In this emotionally-charged memoir written in cinematic vignettes, Jayne Martin fearlessly bares the parts of her that were broken when her father left the family upon her birth and, in doing so, leads readers on their own journey toward wholeness and healing. Whether you are a fatherless daughter or someone who loves one, The Daddy Chronicles will tear at your heart and open a world of understanding.
Sarah O'Connor 